How to build your own plane, 'one bite at a time'. Homebuilt aircraft test wallets, patience.

Plenty of advice and wisdom is available in the homebuilt aviation community to help someone stout-hearted enough to tackle the project. Here's a brief overview from those who have succeeded.

First of all, about 92 percent of homebuilts are kits. They can be ordered from a number of manufacturers. Budgeting $15,000 to $20,000 for a kit, excluding the engine, is reasonable.

Here are the remaining, basic steps outlined by experts:

Find a basement, garage, hangar, auto repair shop, fire station or some other open space to work. When the parts arrive, start from the tail of the aircraft and work your way forward, advises Ron Liebmann, who built his Kitfox and serves as a technical counselor and flight adviser for the Experimental Aircraft Association. First to be built are the elevator, vertical and horizontal stabilizer fins and rudder.

Then come the wings, which typically include fuel tanks.

Next is assembling the fuselage, also known as the body or airframe.

That's followed by what's called the "firewall forward" section of the plane and includes the engine — average price: $20,000 to $25,000 — motor mount and electrical system.

After that, it's time to install instrumentation and paint the aircraft, obtain FAA airworthiness certification and make a successful test flight.

And, that, more or less, is all it takes — a mere 1,000 to 3,000 hours of sweat equity and, experts say, $60,000 to $80,000 of the other kind of equity — to create a typical homebuilt airplane.

Homebuilders consider it a bargain compared with buying a new, factory-built plane for $250,000.

The most difficult part, experts said, is often taking the first step and overcoming fear of failure.

The key to progress is staying focused on the immediate task.

"We have a saying that you eat an elephant one bite at a time," builder Brad Delisle said. "You can't look at the whole thing or you'll never finish it."

Source:   http://www.ktuu.com